Ardleigh Green cricket captain Lloyd Edwards is taking the positives from their five wicket defeat to Benfleet in their Shepherd Neame Essex League Division Three clash.

Edward’s side got off to a strong start with the bat as opener Tom Gentle (50) started well although fellow opener Paul Hurworth (9) crashed out to bowler Paul Frensham Chris Cook (50) stepped in and formed a strong partnership with Gentle to get them back on track.

Luke Edwards was then bowled out by Chris Hammond without making a run but Ellis Williams (40) dug in and helped them reach their score of 190-7 along with Lloyd Edwards (2), James Lavender (8) and Simon Jeffries (21).

“Looking at the result on paper looks a lot worse than how we actually performed,” Edwards said.

“Tom and Chris batted superbly, set the game up nicely ready for the last 10 overs to have a bit more of a bash but unfortunately didn’t pan out that way.

“Ellis Williams and Simon Jeffries had a bash at the end but we didn’t quite get the runs as a team that we would have liked.”

Benfleet opening batsmen Samuel Coelho (27) and Ben Munday (124) got their side off to a strong start before Coelho was out for an lbw and Munday was caught out by James Lavender.

The rest of the batting line-up chipped in and helped them score 193 for five to sealed the points for Benfleet.

“They had an opening bat that swung the bat hard and unfortunately came off on the day which put us very much on the back foot from the off and I don’t think he even gave us a chance,” Edwards said.

“The pleasing thing was that once we had a wicket or two we bounced back picking up a few more wickets and a few more points which was a massive positive for us.”

Skipper Edwards says his side must learn from the defeat and move on from it for their clash against Old Brentwoods this weekend.

“One thing we as a club will always look to do is learn from situations weather it be a positive or a negative, so nothing or no one let us down at all, we will just put it down to one of those days, draw a line under it and move onto to next week Versus Old Brentwoods.”